Hungry Little Sister, Noisy Big Brother

We’ve just finished a full week as a 4-person family. Everyone is healthy and happy, which is all we could ask for. At least 80% of the time at home, Jenny and I are each engaged with a kid – she most often with Zaeda, me with Oliver. Just keeping them both fed and out of trouble has required us to reconfigure our time management routine and downgrade our expectations of what we can get done on an evening or a weekend (right now, not much!). We’ve taken a few small trips around town with both kids and things are settling somewhat. We’d like to make a trip to the beach later this summer, but we’ll be primarily home-based this year.


Zaeda is bright-eyed, curious, wiggly and hungry. She’s looking around and giving us gas-related smiles every now and then. Can’t wait for the real thing! I don’t want to jinx us, but so far, she’s slept much better than Oliver did at this stage. I’ve actually been able to get a full night’s rest most nights. I know that won’t last and that we’ll have rough nights ahead, but I appreciate how Jenny has managed the baby in the wee hours.


Oliver adores his baby sister. He wants to hold her, kiss her, play with her, and know where she is at all times. He puts blankets on her (too many) and stacks toys around her (too many) and is really attentive. That said, we’re suddenly aware of what a noisy kid he is. When he was a newborn, we tip-toed through the house, whispered to each other, and sent the pets outside at the first woof and meow. Zaeda gets no such peace. As she is sleeping, her big brother is nearby playing his ever-present recorder (a combination whistle, drumstick, puzzle, and club that he brings out several times a day), shouting, stomping, singing, and yes, even clashing his cymbals (why cymbals, Mom and Dad, er.. I mean, Santa???).

Amazingly, she sleeps through most of it.


Oliver highlights:

1. We bought some alphabet magnets for the fridge. He asked that I write his name so he could find the magnet letters and place them in order. Then he took all the magnets and aligned them with the same letters on the foam floor mat in his room.

2. Oliver generally manages the VCR. He can load a tape and get it playing by himself. His choices dominate the living room entertainment much more than they should.

3. Oliver started at a new daycare downtown last week. They have a sandbox which we learned when we loaded him into the car and discovered buckets of sand hiding in his clothes and shoes. This is his car seat at the end of the week:

4. Oliver standing at the sink and filling his water glass again and again. Ostensibly he just wants to “get a drink of water”. In fact, he wants to play. Much water is wasted before we can pull him away. Sorry, planet earth (we’ll discuss the diapers later).

Oliver quotes:

“Aye, me hearties!”
“I’m sorry. It was an accident.”
“That’s delicious. It’s my favorite!”
“Good idea!”
“I don’t want everything.”
“I put the flute in my mouth and I play it!”